Taste Buds

After our summer hiatus, my cookbook club, The Taste Buds, reconvened for our September meeting. Peggy was our hostess and she decided to invite other cookbook clubs and have a tailgate theme.  We southerners do love our football teams and this was a great idea for September.  We could bring anything that we would want to take to a tailgate.  We had lots of great food, but first I have to say a few words about where this took place.  As I said, Peggy was our hostess and we met at what her family calls the pool house.  I wish I had photographed this house from the front/entrance but I was too interested in tasting all the good food and forgot.  This house is one gianormous room. It is so neat!!!!! It has the look of an old farmhouse.  I have only been there a few times, but I just love it.  You may wonder, why does anyone need a room/house like this, but believe me this family needs all the room they can get when they come together. There is a lot of them!!  Ok now for the pictures and food:

This gazpacho at the end of the table was fabulous and so smooth.  It would be so good at one of the early games in our very hot southern climate.  My mouth is watering!!

Patricia, Linda, Peggy(our hostess) and Anne

Lillajo, Gay(serving that delicious Gazpacho), Kathy and Anne

Along with great food comes good conversation. I wonder what they are talking about??

Another view of the table and you can also see more of this great room.

 Sissie and Peggy 

 Beth and Brenda standing by my dish.  Do you think they could be discussing how much they like my Tuscan Cheese Torta??

 Patricia, Gay, Jennifer, Linda and Peggy

Jennifer and Linda getting some of the delicious Do-Ahead Brisket from Dallas Dish. This brisket made great little sandwiches. I had two!!  Also a better peek into this fabulous room.

More hovering over the Do-Ahead Brisket. Did I mention how good it was!!!

Linda Kay trying the Salmon Tea Sandwiches.  OMG!!!!  Delicious!

Now on to pics of just the food.  I tried to photograph everything, but I missed some, so please forgive me if your item does not appear.  I also do not claim to be a photographer and some of my photos did not do your dish justice, so I decided not to include.  But here is what I have:

                                                                                                  

                    Chicken Couscous Salad                                                                          

      Pimento Cheese on Cornbread Toasts

             

               Salmon Tea Sandwiches

                       

                              Pickled Shrimp          

                 Tuscan Cheese Torta

                        Do-Ahead Brisket

            Rocky Road Fudge Bars

                     Outrageous Brownies

                            Elephant Ears

As you can see we had a variety of tailgate foods.  I might add that it was all delicious!  Now on to sitting down and chowing down.  Yum!!!

We are serious about cooking and eating.  Examining a cookbook for 2012.

Still eating - it was sooo good!

 Three other cookbook clubs were represented - Dishin Divas,  Red Roosters, and LeGourmet.

It sure was fun having all of you join the Taste Buds for our September meeting and many thanks to Peggy for this great idea and the use of her gianormous room.

If you are interested in any of these recipes, just let me know and I will try to get them posted for you.

patti

Greenwood and The Viking Cooking School

The Taste Buds decided to take a trip over to Greenwood for a class at The Viking Cooking School and a night at The Alluvian.  After all the planning and reservations, only 4 of us were able to go. What a fun time.  I'm ready to go again.  We missed you Martha, Lynn, Peggy and Anne.

Beth, Patricia, Jennifer and me checking into The Alluvian.

Glass of wine at The Alluvian before class starts.

Patricia's friend, Gage, who lives in Greenwood also joined us for
wine and the cooking class.  She is lots of fun and gave Beth some
competition on who remembers and knows the most people.

The Viking Cooking School.

Here we are with our chef/instructor Becky, in the middle, just
before class started.

Beth, Patricia & Gage--now that is some serious cooking!

Jennifer, Beth, Patricia, & me--we are multi-tasking--cooking,
drinking wine, and posing for pictures.

Our finished product: Tournedos of Beef with Champagne Sauce,
Dauphinoise Potatoes, and Oven Roasted Asparagus.

Now it is time to chow down.  In the background you can see
some of the other folks in our class. Great group of people.  For
dessert we had Mousse au Chocolat in Tuile Cups with a Raspberry
Sauce.  I was sooo busy devouring it that I forgot to take photos.
Sorry!  Delicious!!

What a fun 2 days of shopping, eating, cooking, eating, shopping
and eating.  It was a treat to be with these women that I call my friends.

patti

The Taste Buds

Cooking our way thru the Dallas Dish

Just left the February meeting of The Taste Buds.  I ate so much I can hardly breathe.  Another great meal. So far the Dallas Dish is a great cookbook.  This month Martha hosted Taste Buds.  We got about 4 inches of snow last night so the day started with worries of not being able to get up Martha's driveway, but never fear we all like to drink, cook, eat, and share so much that we found a way--all but one and she lives in the country and had some icy bridges to cross.  We missed you Beth and we sure missed the appetizer that we would have enjoyed.  Let us know how it turned out.

Our menu:

Specialty Drink:  Bloody Mary
Appetizer:           Snowed in, in the country.
Soup:                   Carrot Bisque
Salad:                   Arugula and Parmesan Salad
Main Course:       Basil-Stuffed Chicken with Caper Sauce
Side:                     Corn Souffle
Dessert:                Chocolate Souffles with Creme Anglaise
Wine - White:       Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve Chardonnay
             Red:         Root, 1 Cabernet Sauvignon

Now for a few pics:

Martha's gorgeous table.  Perfect since Valentine's Day is in 4 days.

 Peggy preparing the Bloody Marys

Posing for this pic--Martha, Peggy, Me and Patricia

Me and Jennifer enjoying our Bloody Marys by the fire

Peggy, Patricia, Lynn and Jennifer

Meet Anne(left) sitting with Lynn.  Anne could not be with us last month but she makes the 8th member of the Taste Buds

 Me pouring wine and the only picture of our delicious Carrot Bisque

 Me getting the wine and Jennifer, Peggy & Martha

Once again Me pouring wine and Patricia, Anne and Sarah Virden.  Since Beth could not be with us Martha's daughter, Sarah Virden, joined us.  Thank goodness--she saved my cork on one of the bottles of wine, since I absolutely did not know how to use their wine opener.  I am much better at pouring as you can see.  We sure enjoyed Sarah Virden!!!!

 Jennifer and Martha preparing to plate our food

Lynn, Patricia and Anne.  (Wish I knew what they were talking about.)

Basil-Stuffed Chicken with Caper Sauce, Arugula and Parmesan Salad, and Corn Souffle.

All delicious!!!

Chocolate Souffle with Creme Anglaise.  Delicious!!

Not a great photo, but a great dessert.

To accompany the souffles, Lynn also brought these darling cookies.  They were made by Diane, a local baker.  Also delicious.

Now take a look at these cute boxes of toffee.  Martha made the toffee and prepared these little boxes for each of us.  OMG, another delicious treat!! I'm not eating again until Friday.(haha)

Before we depart, we critique the recipes. We all agreed, they were all delicious.

Sorry, I did not take enough photos of the food, but I get so wrapped up in the food and fellowship with this great group of women that I just forget.  I will try to do better.  Can't wait til March.  See you then.

patti

The Taste Buds

I am so excited to tell you about my cookbook club, Taste Buds.  We are eight women that started this club 3 years ago.  We meet 8 months of each year, January thru May and September thru November. We choose one cookbook to use each year, we meet at lunch, we cook in eight categories, we love to eat,  and most of all we have fun!!  The categories are specialty drink, appetizer, salad, soup, entree, side, dessert and bread and wine.  We each hostess the club once a year.  The month we hostess, we select the entree.  We then rotate the categories so that we each cook one recipe from each of the eight categories per year.  The bread and wine category is reserved for the member who was the hostess the prior month.

I am the hostess for January and this year we are cooking from Dallas Dish.  It is a cookbook from the Junior League of Dallas (duh). Since I decided to make the chicken enchiladas, I also suggested that we make our entire menu a Mexican/Southwestern theme. This was a first and it produced some great results.  If these recipes are any indication of the other recipes in this book, it is going to be a delicious 2011.   Our Menu:

Specialty Drink:   Mexitini
Appetizer:           Tomatillo and Avocado Salsa
Soup:                  Authentic Texas Chili
Salad:                  Layered Avocado Salad
Entree:                Green and White Chicken Enchiladas and Tomatillo Chicken Enchiladas
Side:                   Southwestern Squash
Dessert:              Easy Mexican Flan
Wine:                 Red - Cline Carignane
                           White- Dry Reisling by Pacific Rim
Now for a few pics:

My table with Mexican theme--thank you Beth

Isn't it great

 Martha, Jennifer and Lynn gathering in the kitchen with their food.  We just get so excited to share our food and recipe stories.

Jennifer, Me, and another Lynn.  Lynn was my guest from Oxford.  One of our members was unable to come so I invited my good friend.  We missed you Anne.  Hope to see you next time.

 Beth preparing the Mexitini--OMG this drink is the Bomb!!! You have got to try this.

The Mexitini

 Jennifer and Lynn enjoying the fabulous Mexitini.  Did I mention these were delicious!!

I did not have a pic of our appetizer, but this is a photo of tomatillos and they were the main ingredient in the salsa.  This recipe, Tomatillo and Avocado Salsa, was the second hit of the day.  The real reason I did not have any photos of this appetizer---I was too busy eating.  This salsa is to die for.  It is definitely going to be my new go to appetizer.  Wow!!!

As you can see in this photo, we all enjoyed the Mexitini (empty glasses) and the Tomatillo and Avocado Salsa(empty dip bowl).   From left--Lynn, Peggy, Beth and Patricia.

Peggy, Beth, Patricia and Martha.

The three of us might have had too many Mexitinis.

Peggy pouring our wine.

 From left, Lynn, Jennifer, Patricia, Peggy, Me, Martha, and Beth.  Our other member Lynn is taking the photo. 

 Eating the Authentic Texas Chili-Mmmm Good

As I said earlier, besides liking to cook and eat, we sure do have a lot of fun.

Although this plate is a bit full, it was all delicious.  Green & White Chicken Enchiladas, Tomatillo Chicken Enchiladas,  Layered Avocado Salad and Southwestern Squash. I was in desperate need of a nap after this fine meal.  Eat your heart out, Anne.

And finally, dessert--Easy Mexican Flan

Each month after we finish eating, we waddle to comfortable sofas and chairs and critique the recipes.  I did not tell you in the beginning, but here it is now--we follow the recipes exactly as printed.  This way when we are in critique mode, we do not critique the cook--only the recipe.  I got to tell you--this was one fabulous meal.  I will be making all these recipes again.  Check back next month for the February meeting of the Taste Buds.  See you then!!!!